Alvin Bragg’s weak, politically driven indictment threatens to rip America apart
Washington Examiner
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As protesters and curious onlookers of every political stripe stood by, a defiant Donald Trump raised his hand in a clenched-fist salute as he left Trump Tower for the Manhattan courthouse. Although the former president used his right and not his left for the gesture, it was evocative of Sherman McCoy — the deeply flawed, adulterous, and formerly powerful man falsely and ridiculously hounded by a vengeful New York prosecutor in Tom Wolfe’s The Bonfire of the Vanities.
No one can credibly claim that Donald Trump has an exemplary character. Most men go through their entire lives without ever having to pay hush money to quiet talk of alleged extramarital affairs. Even assuming Trump’s affair with a porn star never happened, the only reason people are inclined to believe it did is that Trump was known for and indeed personally reveled in his promiscuity, at least right up until his most recent marriage.
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The way Trump discusses women can only be described as gross. His persistently intemperate and undignified behavior in this and many other matters marks him as someone unworthy of the authority he seeks to regain through his presidential campaign. Republicans would make a huge mistake to renominate him.
And having said all that, this indictment is nothing but a mockery of the legal system. The charges brought against Trump by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg are exactly as dumb and weak as advertised. They are highly unlikely to stand up in court unless it is through the good graces of a politically motivated judge.
Trump is accused of 34 counts of “falsifying business records in the first degree.” Each pertains to an invoice, check, or stub involved in the process of paying off porn star Stormy Daniels.
Before any other consideration, all 34 counts of this same charge occurred outside the five-year statute of limitation. The only thing sustaining Bragg’s charges is the tortured reasoning that Trump’s “tolled time” outside New York City allows prosecutors to go beyond that period, even though Trump’s whereabouts were known at all times.
Moreover, all 34 counts hinge on the word of a convicted perjurer, Michael Cohen, that would be required to establish Trump’s direct involvement in any bookkeeping chicanery. And even beyond that, it is doubtful that any crime was committed at all. After all, it is not illegal to pay hush money. And despite some people’s expectations, there is no allegation in Bragg’s indictment that Trump illegally used campaign funds for the payoff, which might have actually been a crime. Rather, the theory behind the indictment appears to be that Trump’s business paid off Daniels as a campaign expense, thus illegally contributing to his campaign. This assumes, falsely, that a hush money payment to a mistress (or to a liar claiming to be a mistress) must be a campaign expense. But what about the John Edwards defense — the idea that one can spend money spent to salvage a dissolute and adulterous man’s reputation?
It must be emphasized that even if there were some merit to this prosecution, it would still serve no public purpose at all. This case will not bring closure to victims (there are no victims), and it will not make the people of New York County any safer — not that Bragg has ever cared about New Yorkers’ well-being. In fact, Bragg’s comment after the release of the indictment, that “we cannot and will not normalize serious criminal conduct,” flies in the face of his soft-on-crime record in office.
Finally, there is no question that no one except Trump would ever be prosecuted on such flimsy allegations.
This is just Bragg’s moment in the limelight. This is the self-promotion extravaganza of a man so lacking in professional ethics that he campaigned on a subtle but unmistakable promise to go after Trump, boasting that he had sued the Trump administration more than 100 times and promising ominously to hold people in power “accountable.”
Like the Texas Democrats who arrested then-GOP Gov. Rick Perry on transparently bogus and politically motivated charges in 2014, Bragg is trying to interfere with an election and make a big name for himself.
The most likely and most unfortunate potential outcome of this case is that Republican prosecutors will escalate and begin indicting their political opponents in kind. Just imagine prosecutors in Mississippi ordering the arrest of Gov. Gavin Newsom (D-CA) when he arrives there on his stealth presidential campaign fundraising tour. Perhaps someone will deem his noncampaign campaign to be illegal based on some dodgy legal theory. As little respect as Newsom deserves personally, he does not deserve that, and neither does the nation. Such a development would be a genuine tragedy, fueling America’s anti-democratic devolution into Third World politics that the Left has so eagerly begun.
A much better outcome would be for these charges to be thrown out scornfully and for Bragg to be utterly humiliated for bringing such a flimsy and political case.
That might at least discourage others from following his reckless lead and criminalizing participation in politics.